


Speak in Tongues

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Comment Fic 2016 [27]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-10
Updated: 2016-06-10
Packaged: 2018-07-14 04:57:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7154492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Evan and Radek speak different languages for each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Only For You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate: Atlantis, Lorne/Parrish or Lorne/Zelenka, Lorne is injured while captured by the Genii."

Radek was surprised when he met Sheppard's new XO, a sweet-faced, blue-eyed young man who reminded Radek of a student he'd once known back at Marysk, a student who'd been brilliant and kind and just out of reach. Radek had come to Atlantis to get away from home, and now memories of home were coming to him.  
  
It was uncanny, how much Major Lorne looked like that boy from Radek's past, but he was a soldier, and Radek wasn't even on a gate team (it was madness to send the CSO on a gate team, and double madness to have his deputy on a gate team at the same time), so they rarely saw each other, and Radek didn't have much chance to dwell on dreams deferred.  
  
But Major Lorne was a natural ATA-gene carrier, and sometimes he could get something to light up when one of the other scientists couldn't, so he hung around the lab on occasion, trying to be helpful, getting to know people.  
  
And he knew people well, knew the candy Kusanagi liked, knew that brownies were McKay's favorite, knew how Grodin took his tea.  
  
He knew more than he let on, because Radek noticed, out of the corner of his eye, the way Lorne would duck his head and hide a smile when Radek swore at McKay in Czech because if McKay didn't understand what he said they could all pretend Radek hadn't said something that, in the ordinary world, would have gotten him fired.  
  
So Radek experimented a few times, spoke in Czech when he knew Lorne was in earshot, and he saw how Lorne turned toward him ever so slightly, tuning in, how the mother tongue made him smile.  
  
Lorne wasn't the boy from Radek's youth, but he could have been any number of boys Radek had been in love with growing up, so when the news came through the gate, Lorne was gone, his dog tags were found on a burnt corpse, Radek's heart stopped.  
  
But he wasn't on a gate team, had no real friends among the soldiers, so he had to put his head down and keep working until his shift was over and he could go somewhere alone and take the time to mourn.  
  
Then the news came from the medical contingent – the bodies didn't belong to any Atlantis Expedition members; they were Genii who'd been sacrificed.  
  
Lorne was still alive.  
  
Sheppard's team was heroic, brought Lorne and the others home safely, but Lorne was – hurt. Badly. Radek just happened to make himself needed in Control when they came back through the gate, and Ronon and Sheppard had Lorne supported between them. Carson rushed to the gate room with a stretcher, and nurses swarmed Lorne with other medical supplies, and then they were in a transporter and gone.  
  
Radek didn't go to the infirmary until well after the rest of Lorne's gate team had left. The marines had left him a card with a crude get-well message and affectionate insults inscribed inside. Parrish had left him a bright, colorful plant.  
  
Radek waited till the nurses were all distracted with other patients, and then he sat down beside Lorne's bed. His eye was swollen shut, his ribs were taped, and one arm and one leg were in casts. But he was breathing deeply, steadily, and seemed to be sleeping well enough. Radek began to speak to him in a low, soft voice, telling him stories about visiting his uncle in the countryside, or the late night shenanigans he and his roommates used to get up to in the streets of Prague, and the time they retrofitted their most hated academic rival with a radio receiver in his braces so he heard music all the time for a week.  
  
And when the nurses came near, Radek left.  
  
Every night, for a week, he came to visit when no one else was around, whenever Lorne was asleep, and he talked, and he imagined that Lorne dreamed with his words.  
  
Until the night when he arrived, and Lorne was awake, blinking at the ceiling and wearing a bored expression.  
  
He smiled when he saw Radek. "Hey, Doc." 'Doc' was what Lorne called all the scientists, regardless of their degree or profession. It was a term of endearment, or so Radek liked to think.  
  
"Major," Radek said.  
  
"Nice of you to come visit me, but shouldn't you be in bed?"  
  
Lorne had been kidnapped and held off planet for a couple of days and still he knew what schedule Radek should be on, cared about whether Radek was looking after himself.  
  
"This is the best time to come visit you," Radek said. "Less noisy, less crowded."

Lorne grimaced. "Yeah. I hadn't expected Parrish to be such a weeper. I mean, yeah, he's a botanist, but he's also –"  
  
"He's also in the SGC, and in the SGC horror is a daily occurrence," Radek said.  
  
"Grim, Doc. But true. So, to what do I owe the pleasure? Did you need me to initialize something?"  
  
"No," Radek said, and then in Czech, " _I just wanted to be sure you are all right._ "  
  
Lorne's eyes lit up, and he murmured back, " _So you found out._ "  
  
" _I called McKay a pink flying pig just for you._ "  
  
Lorne burst out laughing for half a second, then winced and clutched his ribs with his good hand.  
  
Radek started out of his chair. "Do you need me to get a nurse?"  
  
"No," Lorne wheezed. "Just – just don't make me laugh."  
  
Radek eased back down. "All right. How is that you speak the mother tongue?"  
  
"My grandma," Lorne said. "Full-blooded Czech. Came to America during the War, you know? She made sure all of us kids could speak her language." His gaze turned distant, dreamy. "She used to make those pastries, kolaches. You know what I'm talking about, right? I miss those so bad."  
  
Radek filed that away for later and simply said, "They are delicious."  
  
Lorne's breath hitched, brow furrowed in pain, and he said, "Talk to me, will you? Just...talk to me. So I don't have to think."  
  
About what the Genii had done to him. Radek suspected no one would ever know the full details.  
  
So Radek rested his chin in his hands and spoke about that terrible winter in the tent after his house burned down, and he watched Lorne fall asleep.  
  
Lorne was out of the infirmary the next day, relegated to light duty until he had his casts removed, and even then light duty would probably continue until he'd done enough PT to strengthen his damaged limbs.  
  
Radek knocked on Lorne's door late at the tail end of his designated Sunday night.  
  
"C'mon in, it's open," Lorne called, so Radek initiated the lock and stepped inside.  
  
Lorne was propped up on his bed, a box of pastels balanced carefully on his leg cast, a sketchbook balanced on his arm cast, and he was drawing.  
  
"Hey, Doc." Lorne smiled. The bruises were fading.  
  
His blue eyes were lovely.  
  
"Major," Radek said. "I have brought you a gift."  
  
Lorne raised his eyebrows. "What? You didn't have to. I'm pretty sure I'm well past the sympathy stage. Sheppard's bombarding me with all the paperwork that didn't get done for the week I was in the infirmary."  
  
"Not sympathy," Radek said carefully, and he held out the little cardboard box.  
  
Lorne fumbled to get it open, and Radek reached out to help him, and their fingers tangled, and Radek couldn't help the frisson of heat that shot through him when Lorne caught his gaze for a moment while they struggled to get untangled, but then they got the lid open, and –  
  
"Kolaches," Lorne breathed. "How did you – where did you –"  
  
"My sister," Radek said. "She bakes and sends. On the Daedalus. Carefully preserved."  
  
Lorne hesitated. "Doc, I couldn't. She made these for you."  
  
"I want you to have them," Radek said, backing toward the door. "So you have a little taste of home."  
  
Lorne caught his gaze and held it. "Thanks, Radek," he said, and in Czech, " _This means more to me than I can possibly say._ "  
  
" _I know_ ," Radek said. " _I will never ask you what it means, so you will never have to say._ "  
  
The sorrow that crossed Lorne's face made Radek want to take it back, but then Lorne nodded, and he smiled, and Radek said his farewells and left.


	2. Iambic Pentameter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Any, any, (970): _Too bad, iambic pentameter is a drunk specialty of mine._ "
> 
> John watches his comrades get drunk (or stay sober) after Atlantis gets stuck in Frisco Bay.

Atlantis was grounded and pretty much everyone was trapped in it, cut off from their families and the rest of Earth while the IOA and Homeworld Sec struggled to figure out how to deal with this very splashy news story (pun intended) in the age of smartphones and YouTube. There was no word in or out, no phone calls or emails or anything.   
  
They were just stuck.   
  
And they were bored.   
  
And restless.   
  
The most interesting thing on the city at this point was Ronon and Amelia's romance, which had seemingly come out of nowhere. John was sure Ronon had been interested in Keller, and that he and Rodney were competing for her affection up to the point where Rodney made a real move. So Ronon and Amelia? Pretty random.  
  
But interesting.   
  
There were bets on who'd made the first move and who, of the two of them, would win in a fight. Lorne had some inside information because apparently he'd witnessed Amelia being badass during Michael's incursion into the city a few weeks back.  
  
Somehow speculation about Ronon and Amelia's love life had spiraled around to discussion about John's utter lack of a love life despite Rodney's frequent accusations that he was Kirk, and the whole thing had devolved into John, Zelenka, Lorne, Teldy, Kusanagi, and Cadman sitting around in John's quarters commiserating and getting into John's stash of comfort food (and booze).   
  
"Romance is just a distraction in the field," Teldy said firmly, sipping delicately from a cup of Athosian wine.   
  
"But that time you made Rodney kiss Carson was pretty awesome." Kusanagi grinned at Cadman.   
  
"I kissed Carson. Just in Rodney's body was all," Cadman said.   
  
"Yeah, I can never unsee that." John shook his head to clear it.   
  
Zelenka was looking pretty wasted from what little wine he'd had. "Romance is so complicated. Why do people want flowers and sonnets? It's all so pointless."  
  
Lorne, by contrast, was languidly serene. "Too bad you think so. Iambic pentameter is a drunk specialty of mine."  
  
"Poetry? I know you're an artist, but now you're just pandering to stereotypes," Teldy said.   
  
"Iambic pentameter?" Cadman asked. "Prove it!"  
  
Lorne straightened up, cleared his throat, and proceeded to recite rambling, rolling gibberish that was clearly iambic pentameter but not much else.  
  
Only Zelenka looked enthralled, like he clearly understood what Lorne was saying, and it took John's alcohol-fogged brain a moment to catch up.  
  
Lorne could speak Czech.  
  
"That doesn't prove a thing," Teldy said.  
  
Kusanagi shook her head. "It proves he's pretty drunk, though."  
  
"How drunk is drunk?" Cadman peered at Lorne.  
  
Zelenka grabbed Lorne by the collar and hauled him into a kiss so fierce it dislodged Zelenka's glasses. John could only stare, bewildered, as his XO kissed back, filthy and enthusiastic, open mouths and twining tongues.  
  
"Pretty damn drunk," Teldy pronounced, and finished her cup of wine in a single gulp.  
  
It wasn't until much later, when everyone was passed out (the women in a puppy pile on the floor, Lorne against the closet with Zelenka cuddled close to his side and resting on his shoulder), that John realized something no one else had known up to that point:  
  
Lorne wasn't drunk.  
  
His cup of wine was totally dry and didn't have even the faintest whiff of alcohol on it.  
  
John stood in the middle of his quarters, staring at his XO in quiet puzzlement, and then took himself off to bed. He'd deal with the fallout in the morning.


End file.
